Ten-Year Follow-Up of Patients Following Craniotomies in the Sitting Position: A Real-World Data (RWD) Analysis
Sourav S. Patnaik, Noah Jouett, Ulrike Hoffmann · Preprints.org · 2025
Background: The sitting position for craniotomies, although often surgically advantageous, can impose serious risks to patient safety. Objective(s): To evaluate long-term post-operative follow up in patients undergoing craniotomies in the sitting position. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: We utilized the TriNetX web interface to perform real-world data (RWD) analysis focusing on a long-term (10 year) follow-up of patients who underwent cranial anesthesia in sitting positions (CPT 00218). Patients: We performed two patients cohorts: cohort 1, patients aged > 50 years and cohort 2, patients with ages 18-50 Intervention: Patients with a history of Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, or any similar conditions were excluded. Main outcome measures: We evaluated embolism-related complications, postprocedural complications, vascular and circulatory complications, neurological conditions, hematomas and hemorrhages, and other pathologies including death. Risk ratio and other statistics were calculated in the TriNetX web-interface. Results: For the ten-year follow up period, we found that mortality (RR 3.663 (2.51-5.346); p50 years) than in the younger cohort (18-50 years). Irrespective of the type of surgical procedure, neurological complications do exist in the long term in patients undergoing craniotomies in sitting positions. Conclusions: Further analysis is needed to understand the root causes of the observed delirium phenomenon in the older patient population.